spirit.fire.she

Ah Nate Parker. This has been extremely challenging for me to process. I wasn’t so much disappointed by the news of his rape case as I was offended. Nate Parker has disappointed me in the past with other choices and comments he’s made, but not this. And his recent comments were almost more offending than the incident itself because it showed that 17 years later this dude had convinced himself that he had done nothing Read more...

After a mountaintop experience with Carrie Mae Weems and my college bestie Kim last weekend in DC, I returned to NYC on Monday. That same night I had an awesome time at a cocktail mixer. I engaged with literary agents, editors and other writers and was feeling uber inspired as a creative and as a Black woman. Then I decided to take the bus back uptown to Harlem after the Read more...

I had the last question of the night. By now all the platters of grilled salmon were bare and everyone was munching on their dessert cookies. I had the last question of the night and I wanted to ask Carrie Mae Weems if her radicalism, her ‪#‎BlackGirlMagic‬ if you

This weekend, I will be one of 128 women to appear at the New York debut of ‪‎WOW‬– Women of the World Festival, an international event intended to celebrate women and spark progressive discussion of their rights. Held at the Apollo Theater in Harlem —and open to everyone—the event runs June 11-14 and includes keynotes by Iyanla Vanzant and Naomi Wolf, performances by Macy Gray, Jessica Care Moore, and Toshi Reagon, workshops on Read more...

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” -Audre Lorde

theHotness celebrates and partners with Black queer women this month in our #CountMeOUT campaign that links African and African-American women– both queer and straight in conversations and hopefully in a movement that expands the ways in which we think about community, activism and sisterhood.

When you returned home on Wednesday, May 6th I know you surely had a WTF moment. Discovering that your home was broken into, seeing your cars vandalized and finding a naked woman, whom you didn’t know, in your bed had to be shocking, infuriating and maybe even a little scary. You were violated by a young woman who by all accounts, even Read more...

“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman, the most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” – Malcolm X

When most people think about Malcolm X they immediately think of Black manhood leading to associations of Black power tied exclusively to the work of Black men. This is most likely a case of people not knowing that our own Black shining Read more...

This Saturday, March 28th, in partnership with Imagenation Cinema Foundation, theHotness.com is hosting the 7:30pm screening of the critically acclaimed film Girlhood. Please join me as I moderate a post discussion with panelists Yvette Russell (former ESSENCE Entertainment Editor & current Director of Programs for READ Alliance), Shawanna Bell (Program Coordinator at Young Life), and Genesis Mullen (Young Life member) along with girls from the Harlem chapter of Young Life for Read more...

On the recent cable broadcast of Book Of Negroes when Aminata Diallo says to her former slave owner, “I love that slave man… freely,” she was not only claiming her love for her African husband, she was committing an act of resistance. Manifesting their love was a radical expression of freedom for slaves that even chains couldn’t suppress. That kind of freedom was a threat to the entire institution of slavery and, seemingly, is one Read more...